Author's Note: I like pie. And muffins… and umm… Blaze?

Disclaimer: Most of the characters in this story don't belong to me, and um.. none of the places do! A few Original Characters (OCs from here on out. :P) may appear from time to time, but I'm too lazy to confirm that right now.

Rating: R for many things that'll be appearing later in the story… like more language, and violence, and probably teh saix, knowing me. :D I'm so dirty.

Other than that… err… review for me? lol. No flameyfaces, please

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It had been a month since the fall of Kefka, and everybody had returned to their proper places in the world: Umaro and Mog to Narshe, Relm and Strago to Thamasa, Edgar and Sabin to Figaro, Terra to Mobliz, Cyan to Doma.. Gogo to wherever, and Shadow, well.. to nowhere in particular. Setzer took to the skies again, and Celes going with him on the airship. Locke was nowhere to be found; still missing from when the world went from balance to ruin.

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Celes had kept herself locked in her room for a good two weeks and showed no signs of leaving. Setzer had tried talking her out once or twice, but it hadn't worked.

It was lunchtime on the sixteenth day of Celes locking herself in her room, and Setzer was hanging around outside her door with a tray of food balanced in one hand while he knocked with the other-- lunch was the only meal of the day that Celes would bother eating, and Setzer dreaded bringing it to her, since it always evolved into some kind of argument about how she should stop hiding herself away, which would normally end in Setzer getting something heavy thrown at him.

"Celes..," he mumbled, "open up." there was no reply from inside the room, so Setzer knocked louder, "Let me in. I have your lunch." there was still no answer, so Setzer just opened the door (it was rarely locked) and went inside to find the room empty.

"Celes?" he asked, frowning and putting the food down on her nearby desk before leaving; he found Celes up on deck, standing at the railing and leaning rather dangerously over the side of it. Setzer could tell that she knew he was there even before he lay his hand on her shoulder.

"Hey," he whispered, "you shouldn't lean like that, you know.. Couldn't have such a beautiful lady like you falling to a watery grave, could I?"

She didn't move, and she didn't speak.

"C'mon, food's in your room, so you should go and eat something," he persisted.

Still she did nothing, but Setzer was patient. In fact, he was patient for a whole three hours before Celes would say anything; turning to look at him.

"Take me to see Terra."

Setzer blinked once, nodding slowly, "Right now?" she shook her head 'yes', and he flashed her an awarding winning grin, "Your wish is my command."

She offered him an extremely forced smile, and as she went back below deck, Setzer noticed that Celes' knuckles were whiter than usual from her hand being so tightly clenched around a very familiar blue bandana.

He took Celes to Mobliz, and has he left, he made himself a little silent promise to get in touch with Shadow and start looking for Locke again. Setzer was going to find him if it was the last thing he did-- Celes definitely needed it.

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The town looked so different from the last time that she had been there: everything was rebuilt, and there were so many people now.. they were even out in the streets and about town, instead of being kept inside and away from the cruel world.

Walking past a pile of wrestling children, Celes made her way to the nearest adult, fully intending on asking where she could find Terra.

"Excuse me," she began, "but could you please tell me where to find--"

"Celes!" called a voice from somewhere behind her, and she half-turned, expecting to see Terra, who was truthfully nowhere in sight. "Celes!" called the voice again, "I'm over here!" it seemed to be coming from that pile of children that she'd passed. Celes took a more careful look at them now, and she could barely see that Terra was trapped underneath them.

"Help me!" she laughed.

Celes took only four steps to Terra's rescue before she herself was moshed by the kids, who seemed to have split up into two groups. "I can't!" she exclaimed: there were two children sitting on her back, one on her legs, and two holding her arms down. "They've got me, now..!"

Terra's expression somehow went from playful to serious, 'Oh no." said she. It was mere seconds before she was laughing again.

After what had to be three minutes of just being sprawled on the ground, Terra attempted to get to her feet, though the children wouldn't let her. "I need to talk with Auntie Celes for a little while.. I haven't seen her in a long time. Will you please let me up? I'll play later. Marie, what did I tell you about spitting on Colin?"

The kids obviously wanted to stay, but they all eventually went off to a game that didn't involve attacking adults and pinning them to the ground. Celes got to her feet, rubbing her arm.

"They're awfully savage," she commented, smiling just a little.

"You think?" Terra grinned, "Well, they're normally worse. Let's go for a walk."

---

"Setzer told me that you've been keeping yourself locked away in your room for the past two weeks," Terra said from where she was sitting on the ground-- Celes was standing a few feet away. "What's been bothering you?" she asked, though she knew exactly what the initial answer would be.

Celes frowned, taking a while to reply to that, "What do you think?"

Terra sighed, "Other than that."

"There isn't anything other than that," she lied, and very expertly at that.

"I'm not stupid, you know. You're not telling me the truth."

Celes' frown deepened, "Oh, I'm not?"

"No." Terra paused, breathing in deep the fresh night air-- it was getting very dark out; Terra and Celes had spend the past hour and a half just sitting in silence. "Tell me what's wrong. Maybe I can help."

"It's something that only I can fix. I've just been down lately, and being like that is what's been.. bothering.. me," explained Celes, and Terra could tell that she wasn't lying this time.

"What made you decide to leave your room again?" she asked, and Celes did not reply, so Terra went on, "I mean.. did something happen, or was it like a split-second kind of thing?"

"I thought about it for a long time," Celes sighed, "Look, I can't live like this any more, it's not like me to dwell on something for this long." she paused, "I'm letting him go. Don't look at me like that-- you know who I'm talking about. I'm letting Locke go and just forgetting about him entirely, so that I can move the hell on. Here." Celes was holding Locke's bandana out to Terra, "Take this. I was just going to burn it or throw it away, but I figured that you might want it."

"I can't take that," breathed Terra, staring at Celes like she was some kind of crazy woman.

"Fine then. I'll get rid of it."

Terra's eyes went slightly wide, and she quickly shook her head, "No. You can't do that-- fine, I'll take it." and she did; reaching out and taking the bandana from Celes, she tied it around her wrist so that she wouldn't lose it.

Celes looked relieved, though she was doing her best to hide it, "Good," she said," now I'm going to go.. Sorry I can't stay any longer."

".. Where will you leave to?"

"I'm not sure yet."

Terra sighed, staring at the ground, "What will you do if you run into him?" she asked.

"He's dead, Terra. If he wasn't, he would have come and found me by now. He promised--"

"-- to protect you. I know, he promised me the same thing. Maybe he just.. figures we don't need it any more; maybe something came up; maybe he's hurt; maybe--"

"Maybe you should shut up?"

Terra went quiet.

"I'm sorry. You are right, though.. and if he is alive and he does think that I don't need his protection any more, he's right. But if I do run into him some day.. I'll just pretend that I don't know him. The chances of me ever seeing him again are so slim that when the day comes that I might, it will have been far too long for me to just throw away any effort into forgetting him. I've said it once to Edgar, and I'll say it now to you: I'm a soldier, not some love-starved twit."

"Celes.."

"Goodbye. I'll probably come to visit again in a few months."

When Terra looked up again, Celes was gone. She sighed to herself, "I hate it when you lie."